


The Final Loop

by HorrorHavoc (CloudedGalactica)



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Alot of characters that die in canon get to live, Alternate Universe, Brute Boris still dies, Casey is a Lost One only with Overalls and a crocodile tail, Henry Stein and Wally Franks are half-brothers, Henry Stein becomes a Lost One, Henry shittalks Joey, M/M, Multi, Other, Swearing, The storyboards seen in joey's apartment at the end of Chapter 5 get used, Violence, Where in the world is Wally Franks?, where in the world is joey drew???, yep that's my oc just. crocodile baby.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2019-10-11 13:57:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17448299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudedGalactica/pseuds/HorrorHavoc
Summary: Henry wakes up in Joey's apartment and dreads the next loop until he finds something that gives him an idea on how to break the cycle.He continues on while expecting things to go as normal... That is, until he finds out that the cellar isn't boarded up anymore.





	1. The Loop

   Henry huffs as he opens his eyes. He was hoping to find himself home and safe, but... The sight of the ceiling and red walls around him told him that he was just back where he began. He sat up and soon was off the bed and making his way to the kitchen. His only stop was the table covered with various sketches. All things he had never seen through any loop.

   However... One thing that caught his attention was the sketch of the beastly Bendy with the crushed reel in his hand. The _‘Bendy wins’_ writing was scribbled over with a new note by it:

_‘I can’t let this happen. It would ruin everything.’_

   Ruin _everything?_ That just gave him ideas. With a newfound confidence in the next loop, he walked to the kitchen and took a seat. In front of him was his old friend, Joey. The other was simply whistling as he was washing dirty dishes. The whistling soon stopped and after he had put the dishes up, he turned to Henry.

      _“Henry? So soon? I didn't expect you for another hour yet!_ _Now you’re just trying to impress me!_ _”_ Joey exclaimed as if he was surprised. He didn't always say this. Henry sometimes would spend another hour or so laying in the bed he had awoken in just contemplating what he could do or he’d just spend a while looking around for something new. This time around, he definitely showed up early.

      _“Pretty much,”_ Henry gave a chuckle. _Yea... We’ll go with that, Joey. Whatever strokes your already **enormous ego.**  
_

_“Now, I know you have questions. You always do! ... But, the only important question is this: Who **are** we, Henry? I thought I knew who I was, but... The success starved me. Nothing left but lines on a page. In the end, we followed two different roads of our own making. You, a lovely family. Me, a crooked empire. And my road burned. I let our creations become my life.”_

_“Right... But... I’m not too sure who I am either, Joey,”_ Henry started, _“When I left the studio, all I did was mostly talk to my own family. I learned about how well the studio was going in the past from Wally, and...”_

   Wally. Henry had nearly forgotten that his half-brother was the reason he was here. Joey had said he knew what had happened, but instead Henry had been led into a trap that had forced him to loop through the same events over... And over... And over again. Watching the same people die. Going through the same pain. It had worn him down, and now all he can do was quietly blame Joey for everything.

      _“... Then he disappeared.”_

   Joey simply gave a sympathetic expression, _“Poor kid. He was great company, ya know. He shared your ambitions and hope, and, the truth is, he reminded everyone of you. You were always so good at pushing, old friend. Pushing me to do the right thing... But you should have pushed a little harder.”_

It took a lot of energy for him to not snap. _Push a little harder my **ass.** You've been and always will be stubborn, Joey. No matter how hard I tried, you kept going down the same damn road I was trying to drag you away from._ His thoughts raced and were quickly filled with all forms of insults that he knew he **_couldn't_** say. _Careful, Henry. You know how he’ll get if you say anything vaguely threatening._

 _“Henry,”_ Joey starts speaking again before Henry can even begin to go off, _“Come visit the old workshop. There’s something I need to show you.”_

   All the tired animator could do was nod and get up from his seat. This was it. This was his cue to go through and start the next loop. He was sure something was going to change. If nothing around him was going to change... Then he was going to change things himself. He took a deep breath, said his farewells, and walked out the door.

   And just like that, he was back in the studio again.


	2. A Strange Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry, while attempting to remember what he had said and done before, goes to search for the six offerings. However, his curiosity gets in the way of his tasks, and he soon finds himself running down the cellar steps with hope of finding something new.
> 
>  
> 
> _... But was it really worth it?_

__

_"Wh... What did I usually say again?"_

   Henry sighed as he walked onward. He truly did forget so much, didn't he? He runs a hand over the railing by the large sign in the main room as he wanders past. Maybe going to the Ink Machine will jog his memory...

   With this idea in mind, he wanders over to where the Ink Machine was supposed to be. He looked at the lever to the lift, then the power source. It wasn’t at all surprising to see that it was empty.

 _"This lift could use a few dry cells..."_ he muttered as he began looking around the balcony. It didn’t take him very long to find one dry cell on the shelf, then find the other in the nearby chest. Now all he had to do is put these in their places. After having done that extra step, he turns to the lever and pulls it. The ground under his feet shook as the loud rumble of chains filled his ears. Soon enough, the Ink Machine was lifted out of the darkness and into view. Henry, despite having gone through the motions so many times, was still taken back by the sight of the giant machine.

    He took a deep breath as a thought crossed his mind. He turned around and went straight to the old break room. As he looked around, an echo of one of the tapes played in his head–

_'We put them on these little pedestals in the break room. To help appease the gods, Joey says. Keep things going.'_

    The six items. Right. As much as he was hoping that he wouldn’t have to do this again, it seemed like his prayers were left unanswered. Time to turn back and look. He was glad that there were signs over each pedestal as he had completely forgotten what some of the items were. He quickly glances over each one and takes note of what they are. _Wrench. Plush. Inkwell. Gear, Book..._ ** _Music Note?_** He’s... Going to assume that meant some sort of vinyl. He gives a heavy sigh as he begins his search. It didn’t take him long to find a vinyl near the currently running projector and the inkwell under one of the desks.

   Where else could he go...? Henry hummed as he roamed about, and he soon found himself going down the stairs that lead to the large room full of tables. The second he spots the book, he speeds over to grab it. He freezes before he can do so, and a few moments later, he puts the vinyl and inkwell onto the book as he goes to the punch card stand and impulsively punches in. He didn’t even _need_ to do that, but he still did it anyway. While that would have been all he did, he had remembered the boarded-up cellar. There was a voice in his head that was urging him to go look. Just in case.

   He slowly shuffles over and is surprised to see the boards gone. He could go down... He could go down! With a sudden rush of excitement at the chance of doing something new, Henry finds himself opening the trap door and bolting down the stairs. Maybe he was supposed to feel concerned, but he didn’t seem to care as he swung the door in front of him open. After that, he froze up. Instead of a normal room... There was one of those inky tunnels. His heart was racing and his breathing hitched. Something was telling him to back up and leave. To go back up those stairs and continue what he was doing. Yet... He kept walking forward.

   He trailed a hand over one of the inky walls. The ink simply slid off the wall and stained his hands, and the ink on the floor had stained his shoes as he trudged forward. His curiosity was the only thing that was keeping him from turning back, and even when he did, he couldn’t see the door anymore. Maybe this was an airheaded choice, and maybe it was a bad idea after all, but Henry simply wasn’t thinking about the consequences as he was more focused on the very idea of discovering something _different_ for once. He felt something crawling on him, yet he shrugged it off as if it wasn’t a red flag. _It’s just ink. Nothing else. Just... Ink._

    When he reached the end, he found himself at the start. The first and only thing that raised alarm was the fact all color from his vision had been taken from him. The sepia tones were now replaced with a grey-scaled palette. _Alright. That’s... Fine._ he attempts to reassure himself as he makes his way back to where he had left the items he had found earlier. _Maybe it’ll go away after a while... Even if it doesn’t, I can live with this. I think._

   After getting the three items from the table, he turns back to leave the room, and, once more, freezes up at the sight of the inky footprints he had left behind. He looks down at his feet and finds that they’re entirely covered in ink. Oops. The ink in that tunnel must have been up to his waist. Though... He quickly noticed that his arms were covered in ink too. He mumbled something about it being a little early for him to get stained with ink as he walks out and to the other rooms.

   He remembers spotting a gear in the chest when he had searched for the dry cells. When he jogs over to the location, however, he finds that it’s been moved. With a loud groan, he lumbers away and towards the theater room. He perks up when he spots a Bendy plush on one of the chairs, and he immediately shifts the three items in his arms and grabs it. Two more items to go! He triumphantly marches out of the theater room and makes his way to the break room once more. He might as well put the items he’s found up so he doesn’t have to carry them the entire time.

 _"I... Oh God,"_ Henry stops in place after a while of walking when he looks over to spot the... Dead Boris. He could clearly see the wrench in its chest. He looks between the path that leads to the break room, then at the room in front of him. _Might as well go get it now._ he tells himself as he moves to put the four items he has currently down by the entrance of the room. The smell of death was in the air and still strong. With a deep breath, followed by a violent cough, Henry holds his breath and slowly reaches for the wrench. Closer... _Closer... Almost... Got it..._

   The wrench clatters to the floor a second after he grabs it and yanks it out. He stumbles back and moves to the side and heaves. The taste of ink throws him off, and when he looks again, there’s a pile of ink right where he had puked. Just what the hell happened to him? Does he even _want_ to know? He wipes the ink off of his mouth and cringes when he remembers that his arm is covered in ink already from having gone down that tunnel. Guess he’ll have to deal with the feeling. He quickly grabs the wrench, the other items, and backs out of the room. Though he trips over something and falls over, resulting in all five items hitting him. When he goes to see what he had tripped over, he hums curiously as it turns out to be the gear.

 _"Who put this here?"_ he huffs, and, while grabbing all six offerings, gets up and scrambles to the break room. It only took him a few seconds to get them all on the pedestals... But it took him a while to remember that he was supposed to head to the theater room. While being startled by a Bendy cutout, he goes through the motions of turning the Ink Machine on and sharply inhales when the lights turn off. Did the Ink Machine always drain the power of this floor? He gives a small shrug and strides over to the Ink Machine room.

   Like he remembered, the entrance was boarded up. He hadn’t seen anyone else in the studio... So who did this? He carefully treads closer to the boards but ends up jumping backwards and falling over the pipe that’s on the floor as the Ink Demon himself pops up swipes at him. The whole studio rumbles as ink oozes from the walls and floods the ground. Henry jumps up and starts running towards the exit. He knew fully well what was going to happen next, and yet, he still yelped as the ground under his feet collapsed and he fell into the pool of ink below.

   He coughs as he jolts up and stumbles over to the valve. The ink drains, but he knows that isn’t the last one he has to turn. With heavy breaths, he staggers down each flight of stairs, turns each valve, and finds himself standing still in front of where the axe would be. The boards are... Chopped already? Even if he knew what to do, he was being met with new situations. He goes forth, and, upon remembering what happens when he steps into the pentagram, walks around it and through the other door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! Ly here! I just wanted to say that I was actually really surprised to see how well the first chapter did in the span of a single night, and I'm happy you guys liked it! It took me a while to write this chapter because I wasn't sure how to exactly start it, so I had to kind've plan it out a little bit. I swear it wasn't going to be long, but I was just _really_ motivated to write it when I had a good idea on how I wanted it to go!
> 
> Little funfact: Initially I was going to make this a comic but decided that I should try writing something since I haven't dedicated myself to writing something in a while thanks to being more of an artist. If you wanna see my fanart too feel free to check out inkymechanisms on tumblr!


	3. The Music Director

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry goes into the Music Department only to get ambushed by a group of searchers after turning on the power! The next time he awakens, he sees that he's in a new location, and that a certain prophet had found him...

_"Damn buttons..."_ Henry mumbles as he searches around. Nothing seemed the same. He had gone forward, yet, no one showed up. Not even playing the tape that was here produced a result. Utility Shaft 9 was... Empty for once. The silence made him more anxious than he had ever felt before when wandering through here. The lack of distractions had let him easily find two of the buttons, and he was still searching for the last one. He went back on himself. Maybe it's back near the gate...

    When he gets there, he stares at the Bendy cutout with a nervous expression. With no axe, he can't try to break it... But... He grabs the cutout and flips it over so it ends up facing the wall. Now he doesn't feel like he's being watched. With a sigh of relief, he moves the bacon soup cans around and grumbles when he finds the last button behind them all. He really needs to stop forgetting about this one. With a simple push, Henry backs up and hops over to the gate switch and flicks it.

    The ground rumbles under his feet as the gate raises. He's less than happy to see the boards that would have been in front of the entrance to the next room were gone. He slowly steps through the doorway and into the Music Department. While everything before had never been around when he worked at the studio, the Music Department was one place he was familiar with. No matter how much he focused... He just couldn't remember the times when he'd wander down here to hear the band playing the songs for the next cartoon. In fact... He could hardly remember much of the past anymore. He swallows the lump in his throat and continues towards the stairwell. Right... His way out. With a shaky hand, he pulls the power, then quickly runs to the middle of the room.

 _"... Hello? Anyone?"_ he hums nervously as he notices that this time around, there's no searchers. He watches as the gate on the right side opens, the recording sign lights up, and the speakers crackle to life. Was he going through this whole thing facing only Bendy? How would he get anywhere, then? As he's thinking of what to do, he doesn't notice the sound of ink bubbling around him followed by the groan of a searcher that was swiftly crawling towards him.

    When it attacks, Henry's found himself yelping and falling to the ground. With panic quickly rising, he crawls away from the searcher attacking him only to run into another. He didn't expect them to do a surprise attack! With nothing to defend himself with from them, he was left flailing and choking on ink. Was this it? Had some outer forced changed his fate so quickly? With the few gasps he had left, he let consciousness slip away.

* * *

    The sound of the speakers crackling to life causes the formerly asleep prophet to jolt up. The power was on... _The_ ** _power_** _was on?_ He thought the lever was stuck in place? How did it get _unstuck?_ With a stretch and a yawn, **Sammy Lawrence** was soon peeling a piece of paper off of his face, readjusting his mask, and walking out of his sanctuary and into the main room. His progression to the stairwell is swiftly stopped as he notices a large group of searchers surrounding something. He takes a few steps forward as he strains to look over and see what it was.

    Was... Was that a _Lost One?_ He wasn't expecting to see any Lost Ones so far from their original home, nor was he expecting to see only one by themself. That wasn't good... These searchers weren't used to seeing Lost Ones, and Sammy quickly figured out that they had just _attacked_ this one. Oh no.

 _"SHOO! GET OUTTA HERE!"_ he shouts and the searchers disperse. He quickly walks over and glances over the currently unconscious Lost One. They didn't seem badly hurt. He checks the infirmary only to sigh as it's flooded. Maybe he can fix that... He hurries back to his sanctuary to turn the valve, then returns to pick up the Lost One and wander to the infirmary.

    Luckily, that was enough to drain the ink. He places the Lost One onto the cot, and looks around. He can only assume that the medical supplies had washed to the lower floor, and he steps down the stairs only to find a... Large hole in the wall. Sammy cringes as he identifies the location on the other side as the sewer. Eugh...

    He hurries up the stairs and to where he had last seen some bacon soup. It was times like these he was glad he had extra cans around. As he nears the infirmary once more, he walks in to find that the Lost One had awoken. He gives a sigh of relief. They were okay. He watches as the other sits up and rubs their head. They seemed confused as to how they ended up in another place... Maybe he should speak up?

 _"Are you alright?"_ he asks, causing the Lost One to jump, _"I found you unconscious and surrounded by some searchers in the main room. It's not common for a Lost One to wander out so far."_

 _"L... Lost One?"_ they mutter. Oh... They... Must have recently formed. He gives a hum and a small nod as he places the bacon soup on top of the cabinet and rummages through the drawers in search of something that would help the other. He takes note of the mirror in the top drawer, and he sighs as he finds nothing. Seems like it's all been ruined by the ink. He grabs the bowl of bacon soup and places it in the Lost One's hands.

 _"Here. It's not much, but it's better than having an empty stomach."_ he states. They nod and stare down at the soup for a few seconds before putting a scoop of the food in their mouth. It was obvious that they were silently taking in everything that had happened so far. For the few moments that lingered, it was nothing but silence. When the Lost One had finished eating the soup, they simply sat there quietly. Sammy wasn't sure if they were going to say anything else...

_"I thought I was human."_

    The sudden statement throws the prophet off. Human? He's never heard of a human... _"I'm afraid I don't know what a human is... All I know are the ink creatures that dwell here. The searchers, Lost Ones, and anyone in between. What you claim may have been a lie someone fed to you."_

    The Lost One gives a frown as their expression gives off one that is a mix of confusion and terror, _"A lie? No... No, that's not...!"_ they gasp as they try to collect their thoughts, _"I'm not a Lost One! My name's Henry, and... And..."_

    Sammy takes a seat on the nearby stool and puts a hand on Henry's shoulder, _"Henry, huh? Well, if that's the case then you're the first one I've met that could give me a name. Usually I have to help them pick one."_ he explains, then reaches into the second drawer to get out the mirror he had seen earlier. He swaps out the now empty bowl with the mirror, and watches as Henry freezes up. He's had to deal with Lost Ones breaking down before, so this wasn't all too different when Henry did the same. The most that the prophet could so for now is comfort the other until they had eventually calmed down and fallen asleep. As much as he wants to know what had happened, he also knows that it'd be best to let Henry rest for now.

    He gently lays the other back on the cot, and then sneaks out of the infirmary as to not disturb them. Maybe he should look around and see if he can figure out where Henry had come from...


	5. { Update }

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This isn't a new chapter just a small update on why chapter 4 hasn't come out yet.

Long story short my laptop kicked the bucket. It couldn't boot up and then battery died. I currently have no way of getting my stuff from the hard drive so for now it's kinda gonna be a little longer.

Other reason is I got really anxious about if it was good or not... Oops.

I'll try and get it out as soon as I am able too!

-Ly


End file.
